Only 22% of California 8th Graders Pass National Science Test

bonch writes "22 percent of California eighth-graders passed a national science test, ranking California among the worst in the U.S. according to the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress. The test measures knowledge in Earth and space sciences, biology, and basic physics. The states that fared worse than California were Mississippi, Alabama, and a tie between the District of Columbia and Hawaii. 'Nationally, 31 percent of eighth-graders who were tested scored proficient or advanced. Both the national and state scores improved slightly over scores from two years ago, the last time the test was administered.'"

Re:Makes no sense

[Anonymous Coward]

California: 57% white
Mississippi: 59% white
Alabama: 68% white
D.C.: 38% white
Hawaii: 24% white


Massachusetts: 80% white
Montana: 89% white
North Dakota: 90% white
Utah: 86% white

Re:Makes no sense

[dkleinsc]

Some relevant data here (per pupil spending):
US average - $10499
Alabama - $8870
California - $9657
Mississippi - $8075

You'd be surprised, but California is really not spending a lot on their kids either. The places that are spending a lot:
DC - $16408
New Jersey - $16271
New York - $18126
Alaska - $15552
Vermont - $15175

Source: US Census [census.gov].

Re:Makes no sense

[Sparticus789]

You are leaving out the fact that untill about a year ago Calironia was actually run by Republicans. With the exception of the bay area and LA, California actually votes republican (not saying Democrats are any better, just pointing out the data).

Put down the crack pipe. The California state legislature has been Democrat since I can remember. The last time their electoral college went to a Republican was 1988. Schwarzenegger was the Governor, but he was far from being a right-winger and often called a RINO. Except for a small 2 year period, Democrats have controlled the State Senate for years. And LA and the Bay Area make up a majority of the POPULATION of California. Not necessarily the land area.

Re:Makes no sense

[Anonymous Coward]

You should move to Somalia then.

Re:What's the percentage for Slashdoters? Seriousl

[WeirdAlchemy]

You can look at questions here: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrlsx/search.aspx?subject=science [ed.gov]
Also, there's a little sample test: http://nationsreportcard.gov/science_2011/sample_quest.asp [nationsreportcard.gov]

Re:Makes no sense

[scubamage]

This paragraph is important:

The exams measure knowledge and understanding of physical, life, Earth and space sciences. Students were asked to identify chemically similar elements on the periodic table, name a function of the human organ system and explain the effects of human land use on wildlife. In California, eighth-grade students are only taught in physical science, not in Earth or space sciences – another reason why they would struggle more, officials said.

So, basically there isn't a nationally recognized standard for sciences, so the test is really not remotely fair.

Re:Makes no sense

[bradley13]

You imply that spending more would help. Let's have a look at the ranks of the states you mention, and add in their rank (by average score on the science exam):

Alabama $8870 - rank 49
California $9657 - rank 47
Mississippi $8075 - rank 50

DC $16408 - rank 51 (by a *huge* margin)
New Jersey $16271 - rank 24
New York $18126 - rank 34
Alaska $15552 - rank 26
Vermont $15175 - rank 3

North Dakota and Montana, with the best results, both spend less than average amounts per pupil.

There are plenty of studies that show that throwing money at schools does not help. The single best thing you can do to improve most schools is to hire good teachers and fire bad ones. There is a strong *inverse* correlation between states with good education and states with strong teachers' unions. California is a prime example, as is New York (rank 34 on the list).

Re:What's the percentage for Slashdoters? Seriousl

[Rahqstar]

5 sample questions here:

http://nationsreportcard.gov/science_2011/sample_quest.asp [nationsreportcard.gov]

all questions for grades 4,8,12 here:

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/itmrlsx/search.aspx?subject=science [ed.gov]

5/5 for me

Re:Makes no sense

[KhabaLox]

California has been voting blue for years. Well at least it has been shown to be blue in all the President voting that I have seen.

You do realize that Presidential Electoral College voting is not how we select our legislature, right? The Senate and the Assembly each have over 1/3 Republicans, which means they can effectively dictate fiscal policy (it takes 2/3 vote to get anything significant done).

Re:Makes no sense

[Anonymous Coward]

Until 2010, Democrats had had a majority in the Alabama Senate and House for 136 years. htttp://blog.al.com/live/2010/11/republicans_historic_alabama_majority.html According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Governors_of_Alabama), Alabama had two Republican governors following Reconstruction, but after the Democratic Party re-established control, 112 years passed before voters chose another Republican. Alabama may have many problems but the Democrats have had plenty of time in control of Alabama to show what they are capable of. Corruption and incompetence seem to be highly valued traits. :) Disclaimer: I am not defending the Republicans. Just pointing out that they were out of power for a LONG LONG time here.

Re:Makes no sense

[NeutronCowboy]

That's because Fox News doesn't apologize. Instead, they go to court to argue that they can lie in their news segments. For example, they can blatantly lie about the party affiliation of a politician caught in a sex scandal, or they can lie about getting their talking points straight from the RNC.

Fox News is the official mouth piece of the RNC. Kinda like Pravda. Feel free to listen to them to find out what the RNC is thinking, but for actual news, ANY news other outlet is better.

Re:Quick!

[dgatwood]

So, what makes both California and DC different from Massachusetts?

That's an easy one. Geography, mostly. Because of all the agriculture resulting from its climate, California has a lot of immigrants (both legal and illegal) coming from Mexico who do not speak English very well when they get here. In particular, the percentge of illegal immigrants (by definition, first-generation) per capital is higher in California than any other state in the U.S. [statemaster.com], and by a very sizable margin. (Hover over each state's raw number to see the per capita figure.) Therefore, the number of children who are simultaneously learning science while still learning English is higher than anywhere else in the U.S. As a result, there are more kids struggling, who need more individual attention, which means the schools cost more while producing lower test scores.

Re:Makes no sense

[LandDolphin]

This needs repeating:

That's because Fox News doesn't apologize

Re:Makes no sense

[the eric conspiracy]

I call bullshit on the teacher's union correlation. In fact it is the states with the lowest scores that do not have binding collective bargaining.

Five states do not allow collective bargaining for educators, effectively prohibiting teacher unions.

Those states and their SAT/ACT rankings are as follows:

South Carolina â" 50th
North Carolina â" 49th
Georgia â" 48th
Texas â" 47th
Virginia â" 44th

http://markcrispinmiller.com/2011/03/5-states-where-teachers-unions-are-illegal-have-the-lowest-test-scores-in-america/ [markcrispinmiller.com]

And in general studies show a small positive correlation.

http://shankerblog.org/?p=1941 [shankerblog.org]

Of course correlation is not causation, and in this case I really doubt it is a factor either way,

The only factor that really counts is the economic status of the parents.

Re:National Science Tests

[Rasperin]

Born raised Kansan, went to a public school (Olathe South) which was rated 32nd (iirc) in the nation at that time for best school (private & public) (used to be a huge banner about placement). Funny thing is, we learned about evolution, we spent almost a semester on evolution (esp micro evolution) and 1 hour discussing intelligent design. The teacher followed the law to the dot, recently a new school has gone up which is based on technology, aerospace engineering, etc. They've also started to subdivide the high schools so that what you want to focus on is where you are, for example arts and fashion design program is at one school while math and engineering is at another. Sadly I graduated before this went into effect but I'm looking forward to my children attending in the program.